SCRANTON — After a hijacked jet crashed into his section of the Pentagon on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Army Col. Mark Volk directed dozens of people out of the severely damaged and burning building to safety.
“As the plane hit, the explosion took place, our windows blew in, I got knocked out of a chair, people got knocked to the floor,” Volk, now retired, recalled Wednesday during a 9/11 presentation and award ceremony at the University of Scranton. “We’ve just taken a devastating shock and I know that I need to get people out. I need to take care of my people. We went and began to work our way out of the building. To me, I was responsible for everyone in that suite and so I went desk-to-desk, cubicle-to-cubicle to make sure that everyone is out in front of me.”
For his actions that day, Volk would receive the Soldier’s Medal, the Army’s highest non-combat award for heroism.
On Wednesday, Veterans Day, Volk — a former president of Lackawanna College — received another accolade: the inaugural David J. Wenzel Public Service Award from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service.
Royals Remember
Volk’s presentation was part of the university’s “Royals Remember 9/11” series of events commemorating the 25th anniversary this year of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said Teresa Grettano, Ph.D, who is teaching a class that’s part of the campaign called “Making Meaning of 9/11.”
Volk’s 9/11 presentation also doubled as an occasion to present him with the Wenzel award named for the late Vietnam War hero and 27th mayor of Scranton. In introducing Volk, CEEPS Director Brian Snee noted the public service award began a year ago, when it was bestowed upon Wenzel. Snee recalled how at last year’s ceremony he announced that, going forward, the public service award would bear Wenzel’s name. At age 80 and a resident of the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center in Scranton, Wenzel was not able to attend the award ceremony last year and actually died while it was taking place.
For this year, Volk was chosen as the recipient of the Wenzel award. Like Wenzel, Volk also was a graduate of the University of Scranton and a decorated veteran. Along with an outstanding career, Volk also has led a “life devoted very much in the Ignatian tradition in the selfless service of others,” Snee said. The Catholic and Jesuit university is animated by the spiritual vision of the 16th Century St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
When it came time to select a recipient of the Wenzel award, “I needed one name, one patriot, one public servant who has done good work in the world to a degree that is easily recognized but not easily replicated,” Snee said. Volk was nominated and “unanimously and enthusiatically approved” by an advisory board. After serving 26 years in the Army, Volk retired and became the eighth leader of Lackawanna College, “where his leadership helped to ensure the college’s long-term stability … indeed Col. Volk’s service to others has been and continues to be exceptional and inspirational,” Snee said.
Volk said of receiving the Wenzel award, “It’s very, very humbling to me, because I knew Dave. I met Dave very early after I returned, came back to Scranton and started working at Lackawanna College. He was such an inspirational person, not just in everything that he did as mayor and as an officer in the military, but what he did personally in overcoming the challenges he had. It was like they didn’t even exist. So I am greatly humbled to receive the award in his name, to be the first one to get it, post-Dave.”
Wenzel’s widow, Janet Wenzel, also attended the event Wednesday.
Now 71, Volk was born in Easton and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Scranton in 1977 and 1981. He earned a master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College, and received an ABD (All But Dissertation) Ph.D in Higher Education Administration from Marywood University.
An ROTC student at the University of Scranton, Volk was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army in December of 1977. His 26-year military career included experience in artillery and intelligence and service in Germany, Bosnia, the Middle East and North Africa. His last tour, from 1999-2003 was at the Pentagon.
Pentagon attacked
Volk recalled being in his third-floor office in the Wedge 1 section of the Pentagon on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when, like much of the nation, he was watching on television as events unfolded at the World Trade Center in New York City. An aircraft crashed into one of the Twin Towers and as the gashed skyscraper burned and billowed smoke, a second jet hit the other tower.
“I knew at that point it was not an accident. On a beautiful sunny day two planes in a row don’t fly into buildings like that,” said Volk, a resident of Benton Twp.
Someone wondered if the Pentagon could also be a target, “and minutes later – boom,” Volk said.
Because of the massive size and design of the Pentagon, people in other sections of the five-sided structure were not immediately aware of the explosive attack. For them, “fire alarms went off and they thought it was a fire drill. The building is just that big, they just had no clue.”
Volk presented some Pentagon facts. Construction of the Pentagon began on Sept. 11, 1941, the first employees entered April 30, 1942, and it officially opened on Jan. 14, 1943. With 6.5 million square foot, it’s the largest office building in the United States. Constructed of reinforced concrete, it has 17.5 miles of corridors, 23,000 employees, six zip codes, 248 bathrooms and ramps and stairs instead of elevators.
The hijacked jet, American Airlines Flight 77, struck almost directly under Volk’s office. The plane hit the ground first, clipping its wings, and then slammed into the building, killing 125 people inside the Pentagon, and 64 people aboard the plane, who included 53 passengers, six crew members and the five terrorist hijackers.
“Had the plane not hit the ground first, I wouldn’t be here,” Volk said in an interview before his presentation. “It hit the ground first just outside of the building and that sheared (off) the wings. Had it come down at an angle, it would have come down right through my office. Fate, right? You never know.”
The jet hit the E-Ring, the outermost of five ring sections labeled from A through E, with A being the innermost ring. The plane ripped through the E, D and C rings. As Volk, whose office was in the D-Ring, and others shepherded people out of the damaged section to safety, “at that point it was filling with smoke, maybe three-quarters of the way down to the floor. But people were still coming from the E-Ring. They were still coming out. So a couple of people and I stood there for a few minutes, calling to people, guiding them to safety.”
Time slowed to a crawl
A woman he knew came along asked if her people had gotten out from E-Ring. He did not know.
“On a whim, I don’t know why, there was a fire extinguisher next to me, I grabbed the fire extinguisher, I ducked under the smoke and ran out into the E ring,” Volk said, noting a young civilian contractor followed him.
“That part of the building, the third floor, had been hit by the tail,” Volk said. “The tail of the plane went into the third-floor wall and it buckled the floor. And so we spent our time going office to office guiding people out, finding people that were there, helping them out, getting them out, back down the corridor, because you could not get out through the front of the building from where we were — the stairways were burning below.”
Volk displayed photos of the devastation on a large screen and pointed out various locations and details. During the event, he said time seemed to slow down and he did not really feel danger or fear in those moments.
“In the time you’re under extreme pressure, time slows down and that’s how I felt. Time for me was just crawling. It was as if I had 30 minutes to make a decision and I know was just operating that quickly,” he said, snapping his fingers. “It was pretty wild out there.”
He seems to have a memory block of part of the ordeal.
“There’s a period of time that is still blocked to me. I looked out of the windows … after the plane hit, they’re pulling people out of the building, and in my mind what I see is green grass and blue skies and I hear birds chirping. That is a part of my brain, part of my memory, that I never want to know what it is that happened.”
As the threat of structural failure increased, “At that point, there was another person out there — and to this day I don’t know who it was — we were trying to kick a door in. It was a door we could not get into,” Volk said. At the time, he could not recognize the office. “We were trying to kick that door, but we just couldn’t get it open and when that, whatever it was, an explosion, something happened, and I yelled for people to get out. We had to stop and we crawled our way out. I made sure I was the last one out and followed people out to make sure they got to safety.”
But not being able to break down that door still haunts him.
“I learned later that there were two people in that office and — I’m going to cry,” Volk said, with his voice choking with emotion. “Two people I knew were in the office where the tail hit and that opened the wall. They died immediately. But I left two people on the battlefield,” Volk said, pausing to maintain composure, and then continuing, “and that’s a guilt I carry forever.”
A few minutes after getting out, “the building pancaked down, and had we not gotten out, we would not have survived,” he said.
An audience member asked if he has suffered any ill effects from the harrowing events, Volk said, “I had about six months where I had recurring nightmares, where I would wake up and I could feel the heat, I could smell the burning fuel, the human remains. It was not a fun period of time. But I overcame that fairly quickly and I haven’t had those dreams in God knows when.”
Never forget
Volk said he speaks about 9/11 because it’s important to remember those who perished and were injured that day and the families that suffered. “Whether it was in New York at the World Trade Center, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania or in the Pentagon, where I was, I think it’s very important that we remember them and this is a way we can do that, by telling my story and letting you know what had happened.”
Volk told students, “I know it’s 25 years ago, most of you weren’t alive that day, but it’s still important to you. You can tie this back to what you learn here at the University of Scranton. That’s your Ignatian values, what is instilled to you in every class you take. It’s that understanding of world views, it’s that understanding of the importance of ethical behavior, it’s that understanding of how we as a group of people live and work together and need to do that to the best of our abilities.”
Carley Dumaresq, 20, of Kinnelon, New Jersey, a junior majoring in occupational therapy, said of Volk’s presentation, “I think it was deeply impactful. I think this is still very important to learn today, especially with it being Veterans Day.”
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Army veteran and former Lackawanna College President Mark Volk discusses the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks during an event at the University of Scranton. Volk was awarded the David Wenzel Award for Public Service on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Army veteran and former Lackawanna College President Mark Volk discusses the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks during an event at the University of Scranton. Volk was awarded the David Wenzel Award for Public Service on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Army veteran and former Lackawanna College President Mark Volk discusses the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks during an event at the University of Scranton. Volk was awarded the David Wenzel Award for Public Service on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 terrorism attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. Volk choked up with emotion while recalling the terrorist attack and those who did not survive. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 terrorism attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. Volk choked up with emotion while recalling the terrorist attack and those who did not survive. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 terrorism attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. Volk choked up with emotion while recalling the terrorist attack and those who did not survive. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Army veteran and former Lackawanna College President Mark Volk received the David Wenzel Award for Public Service on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026, at the University of Scranton. After the event, he posed for a photo with Wenzel’s wife, Janet. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Former Scranton Mayor and Veteran, David Wenzel, says a few words at the start of the Rolling Thunder Inc. Pennsylvania Chapter 3 Salute to Veterans Ride on Sunday, July 21, 2013.
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Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Volk, 71, of Benton Twp., a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and a former president of Lackawanna College, received the David J. Wenzel Public Service Award on Wed., Nov. 11, 2026 from the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)